The Mike Hosking Breakfast

If you believed the heat in the debate, letting the police move people on was some sort of dystopian incursion by an overlord destined for revolt and rampage on our streets. 

The Labour Party still argues the Government made homelessness illegal, which of course they did not. 

At the very start of the scrap was the basic idea that too many people were having their day ruined by too many other people who seemed to think they could behave any way they wanted with no consequences. 

Lying in a shop doorway was okay because you were "homeless". Turns out virtually none of it was true. 

The law has arrived. The Police are enacting it and by all accounts, guess what? It is nothing like the scandal the apologists made it out to be. 

The Wellington City Mission, among others, is deeply appreciative of how the Police are handling matters. 

This is the gang patch debate all over again. It's the end of the world until it isn't. 

Turns out most of your troublemakers are just that: drug-addled, booze-addled, or both. But not homeless per se. 

And those who are homeless are being taken for help; food, shelter, support, and warmth, all of which are provided. 

There is an industry in this country of handwringers and NGOs, quite often the same people who place far too much emphasis on being apologists. 

Rights are not evenly distributed. Somewhere along the line a business' right to be open, operate, and welcome in a punter whose main purpose is to have a simple transaction is somehow put below the right of a troublemaker to cause havoc and upset. 

All the law that got so much attention and caused so much upset was trying to do was strike a balance. 

And once it arrived, as it did last week, and it got applied, which it has by the way in a fairly small, yet effective fashion, we find out all the gnashing of teeth and all the preview-style drama was never necessary. 

So much so that those who work with the vulnerable are appreciative of how it's all playing out. 

Imagine if we put the same energy into being productive and positive as we did into warning about impending doom? 

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One of the latest young country music stars is headed for our shores. 

25-year-old Max McNown has had a meteoric rise, having got his break only a couple of years ago. 

He left his home of Oregon at 21 to move to California, and at the time, becoming a musician was barely a pipe dream. 

"I wasn't planning on pursuing music at all," he told Hosking. 

"I always kind of wanted to be a singer ... but yeah, it was just kind of a dream in the back of my mind that I never thought I'd chase." 

But a friend encouraged him to give performing a try, and one thing led to another. 

Over the following years, he signed a record deal, released an EP and a couple of albums, and moved to Nashville – the home of country music. 

"The community, it feels like people really do want to lift each other up – especially in the songwriting and production company," he explained. 

"When I came here, it just felt like Nashville fit – I fit in Nashville." 

"It felt like people were super kind and welcoming, and it just felt like my place, and so it's kind of been off to the races ever since." 

And so four years after picking up the guitar, McNown has over a billion streams and a sold-out headline tour under his belt, and now, he's coming to New Zealand next year as part of 'The Slow Down, Down Under' tour.  

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Thursday 5th of November, we look at the extraordinary midterms flip that has decimated the Republican majority in the House and Senate. 

For the last time before the election, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins joined to give his final pitch. 

The latest talent coming out of Nashville, and originally Oregon, Max McNown details his country music rise to stardom. 

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Democrats in the US have taken complete control of Congress, winning majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives.  

The US midterm elections have seen seven Senate seats flip, along with 27 House seats.  

Strong Republican seats like Texas, Kansas and South Carolina went Democrat for the first time in decades. 

Democratic Strategist and former Chief of Staff to Senator Kristen Gillibrand, Joi Chaney told Mike Hosking they knew they we going to win, but the size of the win shocked people. 

She says exit polls show the economy was a big issue for voters, but so was the racism, bigotry, and ugliness from the Republican Party. 

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Labour's Leader believes it was necessary for them to tighten up their campaign and promises leading into this year's election. 

Chris Hipkins told Mike Hosking people have had a guts full of politicians making big sweeping promises with soaring political rhetoric and then disappointing on the other side. 

"I'm determined not to do that." 

"I want voters to know that the promises that I'm making are promises I will keep, and that I'm not just spouting what I need to spout in order to get elected." 

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National's Finance Spokesperson is optimistic that despite the unemployment rate rising, another term in government would see things right. 

Stats NZ data released yesterday saw the rate rise from 5.6% to 5.7% in the September quarter. 

Nicola Willis told Mike Hosking our Official Cash Rate is much healthier than Australia's, who are dealing with an 18 year high. 

"Inflation is under better control and growth is returning; we're doing what we can." 

She said high oil prices and an election had created uncertainty for businesses to employ workers. 

"There's a possible increase to taxes, a lot more borrowing and higher inflation and higher interest rates…" 

"We [National] will be able to find work; we have incentives in the welfare system to nudge them along and good training programmes in place. 

"I'm also optimistic all of these fast-tracked projects will provide opportunities up and down regions not just in maim cities and the South Island." 

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A former critic of the move-on orders says rough sleepers should be removed from the new legislation.  

Police now have the power to order rough-sleepers, beggars, or those acting in a disorderly manner to move on from a public place. 

29 people were moved on in the first 10 days for disorderly behaviour, but only four were homeless.  

Wellington City Missioner Murray Edridge told Mike Hosking the orders were originally designed to limit the number of arrests. 

He says it was a good thing before politicians decided to put rough sleeping and begging into the mix, failing to make the critical distinction between behaviour and circumstances. 

But Edridge says so far officers have applied the law in the way it was intended and haven't moved anyone on for rough sleeping or begging.  

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Welcome to the Midterms of 2026.

Quite possibly, if I can sound almost unpatriotic, they're more interesting as an exercise in democracy than our own election. 

It would seem a foregone conclusion that the Republicans, read Trump, will lose the House. 

It is less certain what will happen in the Senate. 

If it goes really wrong and both flip, stand by for any number of inquiries and impeachments. Stand by for retribution writ large. Stand by for two solid years of unmitigated mudslinging and lawyers. 

What Trump says is true: incumbents always lose something in the midterms. There is always pushback. 

It's also worth noting that before he started the war he talked of reversing that trend, of winning big. But his singular decision to go after Iran has sunk his presidency. 

In fact, an insightful piece I read the other day suggested the markets, specifically oil, should adjust to a permanent, unending standoff in the Hormuz Strait and the Middle East. 

In other words, this is the future. 

Some of the races, especially in the Senate, may not turn out to be the disasters the media want them to be. Being close, as in Michigan or Texas, is not losing. 

So let's see what the result is, as opposed to the polls and expectations. They wrote Netanyahu off as well, and as far as I can see he still stands a very real chance of leading the place. 

Trump, though, can't escape the simple truth that of any modern president, possibly any president of all time, he singularly has taken what by any measure was an astonishing political comeback and blown it sky high. 

People will forgive you a lot, especially an oddball like Trump, if you actually do a good job. If you do make America great again, you can build a ballroom and put granite on the helipad. 

But if you don't, and then lie about it and pretend everything is great when it isn't, you simply look insane. 

Which is exactly where he finds himself. 

Trump had got to the point, given previous results, where it was dangerous to second-guess him at the polls. But like most of the games he has played, that game is now up. 

This week he will get caned, and deservedly so. 

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More signs of recovery in the construction sector.  

Stats NZ data shows more than 41,000 new homes were consented annually to September – up 18%. 

Standalone home consents rose 20% to the highest level in four years. 

Townhouse consents are up 18%, and they're up 11% for retirement village units, but down 11% for apartments. 

Combined Building Supplies Co-op CEO Carl Taylor told Mike Hosking they're seeing a shift in the market – just because we can fit six townhouses on a section, doesn't mean we have to. 

He says a lot of the builders he talks to are starting to pivot their businesses as they're realising they can't actually sell those townhouses – especially if they don't have garaging or car parking. 

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On the Mike Hosking Breakfast Full Show Podcast for Wednesday 4th of November, our dairy industry's hit a record high for production, and we look ahead to the unemployment figures coming out this morning.  

We ask Pete Seat, the former White House spokesman for George W. Bush, to give his verdict on the Midterms. 

And on Politics Wednesday, Mark Mitchell and Ginny Andersen give their thoughts on the election campaign one last time ahead of Saturday night. 

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